How Artificial Intelligence Is Changing the eCommerce Business

The age of AI (Artificial Intelligence) is now, so says the Forbes and any other source offering the news on current tech. The opinions regarding this matter are divided. On one hand, there are quite a few people who expect Skynet to arise and enslave (or destroy) the humanity. This group definitely has plenty of science fiction works to support these theories. However, there’s also another group, namely the entrepreneurs who are currently discovering the many benefits that AI offers to their businesses. eCommerce seems to be particularly taken with this technology in 2018 as even minor AI solutions make huge changes for this business.

photo/ Gerd Altmann via pixabay

4 Ways in Which AI Is Changing the eCommerce of Today

Chatbots

The value of the chatbot market in 2016 reached $703 million and it’s expected to get to about $1.23 billion by 2025. eCommerce is the main ‘consumer’ of chatbots as they allow enhancing the functionality of online stores exponentially.

If the trend goes on, the overwhelming majority of online shopping will be managed by Artificial Intelligence. Today these programs mostly offer assistance with choosing the right kind of product or resolving minor issues that occur during transactions. However, they are learning and their capabilities grow.

AI-run CRM systems

Do you remember how CRM (customer relationship management) systems revolutionized the world of eCommerce? They gave savvy stores a huge boost by predicting their customers’ behavior. However, they had one major drawback, for all the data gathering and processing they did, they still needed a human to go through all that.

Well, they don’t anymore. Today there are AI algorithms that run all the analysis and provide results more accurate than a human brain is able to compute. They can predict all possibilities depending on a huge variety of factors.

Note that in order to use these solutions an online store will need a hosting with the capability to provide the resources needed for all the necessary software. eCommerce business owners should choose specialized services that are in tune with the times and offer suitable packages. Web Hosting Media for example offers a variety of ‘best e-commerce hosting’ lists for any of the popular platforms, from Magento to osCommerce. However, there’s no ‘best for everyone’ solution when it comes to hosting, so businesses should choose wisely.

Inventory Management

It’s a fact that AI is more efficient in management of vast numbers of anything than a human. It doesn’t forget or misinterpret data and can keep track of thousands of products in hundreds of stores. All at the same time.

That’s why AI inventory management solutions are used by the biggest retailers out there, Walmart included. The majority of eCommerce businesses aren’t yet ‘big’ enough to adopt these systems. However, as the development progresses, AI solutions become more affordable, so more stores are able to put any inventory issues in the past. As a result of this change, the rate of customer satisfaction grows as the number of mishaps caused by human error and lack of foresight.

Visual search

Clever AI solutions are able to provide the service millions of buyers have needed so badly, namely finding shops offering an item based on a picture. The Pinterest visual search feature is one of the best examples of this technology that exist today.

That solution is truly invaluable for eCommerce, which strives in the modern fast-paced world. The AI is able to find things that the buyers don’t even know the name of, and offers products in a range of prices and styles. Its functionality is still limited as is the library of products these programs work with. However, this is probably the most important development for this particular business in the last few years.

The way technology is going, soon you’ll be able to buy the perfect item simply by snapping its picture, or even drawing one.

Author: Jane Koval

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Guest Author - Outside contributors to the Dispatch are always welcome to offer their unique voices, contradictory opinions or presentation of information not included on the site.

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